I recently released my newest game "Rico - A Tale Of Two Brothers". It's a retro-inspired platformer, that mixes elements from many great classics like Super Mario, Castlevania or Metroid with my own humble ideas. I've also received comments about its resemblance to VVVVVV.Bottom line: I wanted to create a game I would have loved to play as a child and still love to play now!

I know, I know, … a platformer on a mobile device, where on-screen controls normally don't work very well. But I can assure you that I've put much work into making the controls as tight and responsive as possible… and I've had numerous people telling me that the controls do work really well for them! So why not give it a try?

I have not tried it yet, but from the video it looks great! I like the looks of it. Now, does it work with Phonejoy? I recently got one, and I imagine I'm not the only one with this idea: Not-so-simple touch controls are not very good, when playing any action-game.

If it doesn't already, I think adding functionality for the PhoneJoy will benefit you. I will buy my copy if it does, that's for sure.

I plan to release a desktop version for Windows, Mac and Linux. But as it's much harder to push out updates than for Android, I want to increase the game content-wise before I do that.

But you can download the lite-version for the desktop here:http://planet-wars.net/rico/RicoLite.jar.zipPlease note that it's still mostly optimized for Android, so some things might feel off, like bringing up the ingame menu. But you can test the game just as well! Controls are:Left/Right: Arrow keysJump: X, spaceAttack: Y, Z, left controlMenu: Escape

I have not tried it yet, but from the video it looks great! I like the looks of it. Now, does it work with Phonejoy? I recently got one, and I imagine I'm not the only one with this idea: Not-so-simple touch controls are not very good, when playing any action-game.

If it doesn't already, I think adding functionality for the PhoneJoy will benefit you. I will buy my copy if it does, that's for sure.

It *should* work, as I added support for the Xperia Play recently (and the PhoneJoy docs even tell they use the same keycodes). But I had to "develop in the dark", because I don't own one and can't test if it actually works. If you find the time, could you test with your PhoneJoy and tell me? That would be awesome!

Also I got a little tired of collecting the yellow diamonds towards the end, but that's just my usual impatience.

I didn't go very far (a couple of levels) because of the touch-controls. What is the incentive to collect the diamonds? It seems I'll get the power-ups anyway.

The main music theme is made by a musician called Bunnymajs. I can't put into words how awesome his music is! Check him out at http://bunnymajs.newgrounds.com/ it's just epic!

The more diamonds you leave behind and not collect throughout each world, the more health rico (the boss at the end of each world) has. If you collect all coins in a world, he has only 3 hearts/hitpoints when you face him. I might need to make that mechanic clearer, but I'm not sure yet how.

First, I really love the music and graphics. The colos are choosen very well! And the particle effects are awesome...Also, the way you move the camera/view is very intresting. Feels pretty good, and seems to be a very big element in the game and more than some bad player-in-the-mid-following-camera...

The first time I saw a checkpoint, I thought it would be one of these typical "spikes" and evil. You could have propably added in something like a "checkpoint" text above it. (Don't add this things now. It's experience you gain for your next games )Also, it seems like traps activate too early... or maybe it's just me

Some little things too:I hate loading screens... I would like to have a mute music/sound button... Sound volume is not needed here And a little pause button wouldn't be too bad

Also one thing I'd like to add:I have heard of "IMakeGames" before somewhere... I don't know where... Somewhere around reddit in minecraft or starbound? Writing questions for AMAs? Dunno...

I didn't even pay attention to the camera, so I guess it was done way right.

YES! This is exactly how it should be. IMHO, games platformers can suffer hugely from a bad camera. It's actually quite hard to get right, even though it seems like an easy task at first. You don't want too sudden changes in positioning. If you follow the player too tightly, the game becomes too "nervous" in a way. Especially when the player is jumping up and down.On the other hand, you want the camera to show enough of the player's surrounding (and ideally the important things!). If you don't, the player gets too cautious and starts noticing the camera, which is just as bad.

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I hate loading screens...

No way around that...

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I would like to have a mute music/sound button... Sound volume is not needed here

You mean in game? Because you can reach the options menu from the main menu where you can set that...

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And a little pause button wouldn't be too bad

The in game menu is not good enough? Why would you need a dedicated pause function?

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I have heard of "IMakeGames" before somewhere... I don't know where... Somewhere around reddit in minecraft or starbound? Writing questions for AMAs? Dunno...

I played neither minecraft nor starbound very much, let alone be active in the communities... and I don't even know what you mean by AMAs... so I guess I'm somebody else...

I would like to have a mute music/sound button... Sound volume is not needed here

You mean in game? Because you can reach the options menu from the main menu where you can set that...

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And a little pause button wouldn't be too bad

The in game menu is not good enough? Why would you need a dedicated pause function?

Lol

Sorry. Just tried to test a game and wanted to say what I noticed while playing.

Yeah... idk. It seems to be "convention" to put one mute, pause and mute music button somewhere in the edge of the screen. Or at least it feels like that.

I usually don't try to find something like that in Options, but in case I would really need it, i guess I'd find it then.

Heh... I was genuinely interested if you had the need for that because I was thinking about adding it. The problem is, on smaller screens, these buttons would take up a lot of screen space. Space I'd like to fill with more interesting stuff. Furthermore, every Android device I know of has hardware volume controls... so decided against it.

I agree with what someone said about the touch controls. They work surprisingly good, probably because you only have 2 buttons each side. Anyway, I think it would be a nice touch if you could have a small vibration feedback for the left hand if you change directions or your fingers slip away from the control area.

And since you achieved a good level of polishing, you could fix the bug when Rico's brother is on a moving platform, he gets a little weird, sometimes the sprite animation changes to falling animation very quickly. I know it's just a little detail, but it would to keep the high level of polish!

And since you achieved a good level of polishing, you could fix the bug when Rico's brother is on a moving platform, he gets a little weird, sometimes the sprite animation changes to falling animation very quickly. I know it's just a little detail, but it would to keep the high level of polish!

Good catch! I wanted to fix that for quite some time now, but I was a bit reluctant because I needed to slightly change the movement pattern of these platforms. The shortly visible sliding animation is there because when the platform abruptly stops, the hero still has some horizontal velocity from before and needs a few frames to come to a halt himself. It should be fixed now and be visible once I push out the next update. Thanks!

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